Supermarket giant’s new store policy is leaving many empty handed

It’s understandable that a retailer wants to leave nothing to chance when it comes to policies around serving alcohol to minors but it seems that Aldi is taking things to the extreme in some of its stores.

Posting on social media, a New South Wales Aldi shopper posted their experience from the weekend writing about a woman who was shopping with her son when he stopped a bottle of alcohol from falling over on the conveyor belt.  She wrote, “Her son was with her, who looked about 15 and he picked the bottle up to move it to the front of the shopping, I assume so it wouldn’t fall over”.  She added, “The cashier turned to the other cashier and spoke with her. She then turned back to the lady waiting with the shopping and told her she could not purchase the gin as her son had picked it up and moved it and as he was under 18, he was deemed to be the one buying the alcohol, when clearly it was the women’s gin, he was just moving it, so it didn’t fall over.

“The fellow in the other lane had his two daughters with him, they touched the bottles of alcohol that he had, and the same thing happened to him, both bottles were confiscated.”

Another user had a similar experience at an Aldi store when her little boy offered to carry a bottle of beer for her.  She wrote, “I was told if he touched it, it would be taken from me and the police notified for supplying a minor. He is 10! I hardly think the beer was for him! He was just trying to be helpful. But I do get where they are coming from with older children/teens”.

The official response from Aldi is completely understandable because the laws have no leeway and any store that is found guilty of supplying alcohol to minors could face a fine of $11,000 and the person supplying it could spend 12 months in jail.  Aldi has even stated that the minor doesn’t even have to touch it, but alcohol can be refused if a minor is even accompanying an adult.

Do you think this is taking a step too far or perfectly reasonable to protect their business?